Garden Clubs and Monarch Eggs

As we approach mid-July here in Northwest Illinois, summer is going full swing, even if the cooler-than-normal temperatures have us all scratching our heads.  I don't mind it at all, though!  Since I work outside all day, every day, the cooler temperatures have made me a happy gardener.  And the regular overnight rains have kept all my plants watered on a very convenient schedule.  My containers have never been perkier in mid-July!

Speaking of which, last night I had the opportunity to go and speak to the Rolling Meadows Garden Club about creating unique and interesting combo planters.  As always, I find the experience of speaking to a garden club so rewarding, because the learning process is nearly always a two-way street.  They learned about design principals behind planting combo pots, and I learned something interesting from them as well.

There are a couple of women (at least--there are probably more, but I only spoke to 2 ) who are very interested in saving the Monarch, and have taken on an endeavor of collecting the Monarch eggs on bits of milkweed leaves, hatching them, and caring for them until they are full-grown butterflies, ready to be released.  To-date this year they report that they have released well over 200 adult butterflies.  That is pretty exciting news!

I  have a nice patch of Asclepias syriaca in front of my garage (and a smaller patch of Aclepias tuberosa in another bed).  The syriaca in years past has yielded caterpillars which I have helped my son raise and release.  But last year, we never saw a single caterpillar, in spite of seeing eggs.  One of the women last night told me that only 1% of the eggs ever hatch, and most are eaten by ants.  Since we live in Antopolis, the center of the ant universe, I instantly recognized our problem.  If I ever wanted to see a caterpillar, chances are I'd have to bring the eggs in and try my hand at hatching them myself.  She explained the process:  Cut the section of leaf with the egg on it, and place it on a moist paper towel in a container, egg-side up.  Check regularly over the next 7-10 days.  The eggs will start to darken shortly before hatching.  Place a fresh milkweek leaf in the container daily as soon as the eggs begin to darken, to ensure that the newly hatched caterpillars can find food right away.



I woke up earlier than usual this morning, and thought I'd go ahead and take advantage of my extra half-hour to check out my milkweed plants.  I hit paydirt almost immediately.  I'm not SURE they are all butterfly eggs, but we're going to give it a try and see what happens!

In other news, I've begun getting calls from garden clubs across Northwest Illinois to book me for the coming club seasons.  I've heard from 3 clubs in the past week or so--Antioch, Inverness, and Des Plaines.  Each of them booked a different program.  Looking forward to filling up my cold-weather months with these programs.  Because what's the only thing better than gardening itself?  Why, talking about gardening, of course!